1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to transfer trailers for loading bales of forage into a transport vehicle and, more particularly, to such transfer trailers permitting a stack of forage bales to be sized for efficient and safe loading of the bales into a transport vehicle.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
Transport vehicles, in particular box vans, represent a very cost effective way to transport bales of forage over long distances; however, loading of the forage bales with equipment and techniques currently available is difficult and time consuming. Forage, as used herein, means forage crops which are typically annual or biennial and grown to be utilized by grazing or harvesting as a whole crop. Forage is a plant material and, when harvested, is typically placed in bales. The nature of forage is such that the plant material, even after cutting, is irregular in size and the bales are not of uniform size and dimensions and are difficult to handle. The current technique employed to place forage bales in transport vehicles is difficult and tricky to accomplish since forage bales are typically unsymmetrical in any or all axes.
Stacks of forage bales are currently loaded into a transport vehicle manually or using a “squeeze” such that loading of the forage bales as currently accomplished is disadvantageously time consuming and difficult to accomplish.